The first game under Compile Heart’s new Galapagos RPG brand is Fairy Fencer F, a fantasy RPG for PlayStation 3 developed by Neptune Team, featuring concept art from Yoshitaka Amano, music from Nobuo Uematsu and the Earthbound Papas, and character design from Date A Live‘s Tsunako.

Famitsu this week has first details on the RPG. Find our summary below, courtesy of Sokuho@Hokanko.

Story

Long ago, wicked gods and goddesses quarreled, though somehow or another they disappeared somewhere. The time is the modern age. The weapons that remained from the quarrels are called “Furies” and those who wield them are called “Fencers.” Fang had just become a Fencer when he rescues an assaulted girl named Tiara, who is also a Fencer.

Characters

Fang (voiced by Ryota Oosaka) – The main character who accidentally became a Fencer.

Tiara (voiced by Kaori Ishihara) – A young girl with Gothic clothing and silver hair. In order to undo a goddess’ seal, she is collecting Furies.

Alyn (voiced by Rumi Ookubo) – She has shoulder length hair and wears a super short skirt. She’s another heroine, the saint that dwells within Fang’s Fury.

??? – There is another female character with black hair, but her details are unknown.

Battle

You gain weapon points in battle to power up your Fury. And in battle, you can use combos and magic.

Graphics

In general, enemies are regular monsters like in Hyperdimension Neptunia. The graphics seem to have been improved, however.

Outside of Fairy Fencer F, the magazine also sat down with Idea Factory president Shingo Kuwana and game development boss Norihisa Kochiwa. Here are a couple of interesting excerpts:

Kuwana: “We’re thinking about developing for PS Vita in the future.”

Kochiwa: “Since game development for PlayStation 4 is already underway, I want to make the marketplace firm. It’s not PlayStation 4’s specs but the dimensions of how you play that is different, so it’s about how to use our own expertise to make a splash there.”

It could just be Tsunako’s art style but I feel like I have seen these exact characters before.
Either way this sounds like it will be a nice RPG to have. I still feel like there is just not enough of those around these days.

theguyacrossthetable

omg!? I’ve found you!

http://youtube.com/miyabigaming 武神水樹

Gameplay sounds fun, i’ll give it a go. Want to support new JRPG’s

Budgiecat

I’m just going to chalk up your post as some very clever stealth sarcasm….

JeremyTMH

Tsunako is the artist for Neptunia and Date A Live.

https://www.youtube.com/user/GamingHeroTetsuya TetsuyaHikari

Artwork looks pretty nice so far. I’ve taken some fencing too, so I can actually relate to the main, you know… Outside from not being female anyway :P

Can’t wait to see it in action~

http://momentsreprieve.com/index/ Aushria

Fang is a male protagonist.

“Fang had just become a Fencer when he rescues an assaulted girl named Tiara, who is also a Fencer.”

There’s also an image of him floating around right now, but I can’t seem to locate it right now. Either way, it’s nice to see they can branch away from Neptune.

Budgiecat

Except they really haven’t “branched away from Neptunia” in the sense that “generic FPS isn’t that much different from Call of Duty”. Same art same gameplay engine cmon..

http://momentsreprieve.com/index/ Aushria

Neptune team, and Tusnako. Again, the game was just revealed, you haven’t a dern clue. While I do admit that it is more than likely going to end up being the same old fare, you cannot deny that this has promise.

I liked Neptune for what it was, but I am sick and tired of it’s crap. A stylistic similarity doesn’t mean a thing in that regard. That would be like saying “Noizi Ito did illustrations for Suzumiya Haruhi no Yuutsu and Shakugan no Shana—they must be the same!” when they are completely different in many aspects.

Stop -assuming- and just wait. If it turns out like Neptune and ends up being a waifu quest with insane moe blob antics—you can ignore it.

Budgiecat

Which it will be and you know it. All the warning signs are already there….

JeremyTMH

Well that’s the Japanese game market wants, that’s what they get. Do not forget that the Galapagos label was created for all that intent and purpose, to cater to THEIR market.

Personally I like Neptunia, but I’m honestly sick of them milking it over and over again like a certain other game series that also has Fs in its titles.

http://momentsreprieve.com/index/ Aushria

You do realize that they were declaring “We are not going to westernize our titles,” yes? That is all this brand is for. It’s a bunch of superfluous hoopla that Compile Heart has chosen to embrace full scale, through a showing of incomprehensible stupidity.

but, I guess, if they are trying to assure their fans that they aren’t changing their ways—a new series with same old everything, business as usual is the way to go.

Budgiecat

Yes I know…it was sickening market propaganda nationalistic crap. But just like Imageepoch’s ‘revitalize JRPG’ campaign which went nowhere, I think people can read between the obvious garbage lines here…they’re not fooling anyone..

Budgiecat

No it’s not.

It’s what the niche Japanese otaku market wants.

if they wanted better sales they would try to grasp the overall Japanese market with less shamelss pandering crap.
This in turn would also appease gamers abroad as well (without having to “cater to the West” which they are soooo afraid of (and which no one would want anyway).

You dont need to succumb to trash moe blob fan service to be “a Japanese quality game”

http://momentsreprieve.com/index/ Aushria

There are no warning signs, as we literally know next nothing about this game, save for who is making it and these other scant details.

If they flatout described Tiara and Arin as being similar to Neptune and her sister—I’d be extremely worried—and in agreeance with you, but again….we know next to nothing.

Several scans are not enough evidence to prove anything. Now, if it turns out that way…I will not be surprised in the slightest—this IS Compile Heart after all.=/

Ah, that’s what I was referring to. I’m glad someone saved it, since the thread 404’d on 2ch, making it irretrievable.

https://www.youtube.com/user/GamingHeroTetsuya TetsuyaHikari

Thanks for this. Now I see Fang is really a male, haha. The artwork does look nice though.

https://www.youtube.com/user/GamingHeroTetsuya TetsuyaHikari

Derp. I missed that part. I don’t usually play games for the story any more, honestly, lol. When you’ve been gaming for 20+ years, I guess you just don’t really go in expecting anything fresh any more since a lot of them seem to just mold together or take from each other anyway in one way or another.

Still, thanks for clearing that up though~

http://youtube.com/miyabigaming 武神水樹

Found a scan with some gameplay

darkrise

She looks to innocent to be wearing goth loli *.*

Himiko

Thanks, Shin!

http://youtube.com/miyabigaming 武神水樹

You’re welcome, Himiko!

fyi1191

Thanks for sharing.
Her weapon looks like it jump out from Nanoha-verse.

yuina

Looks way too similar to Neptunia. Kinda underwhelming after they’ve put so much effort into hyping this up.

Haku_Luvs_You

I’ve suddenly become less interested. That battle screen looks like it’s just Neptunia again. Not that I dislike Neptunia, but if they’re going to give me the exact same game they might as well have just slapped the Neptunia name on it.

Plus that character is just Nepgear with a gothic outfit, and a slightly bigger bust…

PrinceHeir

excited as hell!!!

http://youtube.com/miyabigaming 武神水樹

Me too ^ ^

Eclipse

Nice, I was hoping that Tsunako would be involved in this~!

I’m quite excited for this, and I’ll pre-order a copy as soon as it’s listed.

Himiko

Hey, Eclipse, I hope you got my email!

マッシュー

Kyari-chan is voicing a gothic loli?! I’m so in.

Budgiecat

Disappointing to say the least. More generic moe blob…I was hoping with the inclusion of Amano they would take a different artistic approach this time, but it just looks like Neptunia characters in cosplay. Are you freakin kidding me. As if WRPG’s aren’t generic and bland enough with their Tolkien and space marine pandering to dudebros… Oh well, happy fun fap time pedo bait for all the foreveralone fat Otaku losers I guess…

http://momentsreprieve.com/index/ Aushria

You haven’t a clue. Look, I too, could care less about the moe bullcrap, but art means nothing. Tsunako has worked on many projects, several of which were not moe blob waifu quests.

Characters need to look appealing, and Tsunako’s style; while simplistic, is perfect for a whole plethora of genres.

Budgiecat

No its not because it draws too many similarities visually and then there’s the one accidental beta male hero and his (expected) harem of moe blob cookie cutter females. I could already predict the trope filled plot in my head…gah

http://momentsreprieve.com/index/ Aushria

Visuals don’t mean squat. Things can look the same, but still be vastly different.

Budgiecat

You could say I’m too negative and I can say you’re too positive. Perhaps we are both two sides of the same battery. But in the end you know how this will end up due to the company involved…

http://momentsreprieve.com/index/ Aushria

I’m not positive. I have chosen to wait and look at the details as they are at face value. There is no use trying to pry into such matters, when I know nothing more than what has been put before me.

When the teaser site is up and running in full capacity and I’ve seen screenshots which aren’t obscured by a magazine spread—only then will I pass judgement.

Budgiecat

Well I’m not happy with what I seen so far. I was hoping Amano was the art director and as such, would go back to his Tatsunoko roots (he helped create SPEED RACER and GATCHAMAN) and design the characters with that more mature looking artistic motif instead of more moe blob…

Elvick

You know, you could have just said you didn’t like it instead of insulting anyone that does.

http://youtube.com/miyabigaming 武神水樹

He just wants attention

Budgiecat

I just want you to hug me

LordKaiser

I think he just wants a JRPG with a strong story and deep characters like the RPGs fro SNES to the PS2 era.

He may be tired of the Moe personalities and because of how characters looks he thinks they will behave like Neptunia’s characters. IDK but I think they should add more male characters.

On Anime it’s also happening that these shows are released more as well. Sword Art Online is the only Anime with Moe looking characters that is no Moe.

https://www.youtube.com/user/GamingHeroTetsuya TetsuyaHikari

>moe blob
>implying Amano has never made such a thing

Moe blob Cecil Harvey and his purple lipstick say “hi”.

Okay, maybe not as “moe” as you’re thinking of, but making rather cute and feminine artwork is not out of his realm. There is so much more I could pick at from your post (basically implying any J-RPG is similar to another and that characters are just “cosplaying”), but I can clearly see you aren’t willing to listen to reason… Especially with your insults there towards the end. I’ve seen you post around here before, but never have I seen you look so disgusting until now.

People like you make me sick.

Luna Kazemaru

haha his post have always been bad

Budgiecat

You know whats not moe blob garbage

GODMAAAAAAAARS!

Back when Anime was cool…

http://momentsreprieve.com/index/ Aushria

Fairly excited, mostly for the fact that early reports say it uses an overhauled and or advanced version of Neptune’s combat with Air Combos. Which leaves for loads of other possibilities ~

Yeah, I tried throwing money at my monitor and nothing was happening, so I stopped :|

Budgiecat

tired meme is tired. I’m throwing cat food at the screen and nothing is happening either….

new_tradition

I don’t dislike the art, but I was hoping for some Amano-esque characters.

If he’s not the character designer, then what is he going to be doing? Just promotional stuff? Background illustrations? I remember seeing that big hulking creature in the promo vid, so if this is gonna look like a visual novel in the story scenes, I guess he can do some renders or something for the “bad guys”.

Cute characters, but I want more dudes please ;D

http://www.santashi.com/ Santashi

The logo looks like it was done by Amano. Not seen anything else obviously Amano yet but I suppose it is early days.

http://twitter.com/RaiuLyn Raiu

I’m finding it somewhat hard to believe Yoshitaka Amano is working on it… Then again he would be working on the other designs than the characters….

Other than that, I’m interested…

http://chaosraiden.blogspot.com/ Chaos Raiden

Looks awesome.

Hatsuaki

The game is looking a lot like Neptunia at this moment, but I’m hoping something about it feels different. Hey, we already have a main male character so it’s different already! (joke). I’m hyped, but I’d like to see a bit more about the system, especially when it comes to battles.

http://lukalovesgames.blogspot.de/ Alkaid

Really interested in it! The Logo looks especially nice, but it will probably take a while until wie see more.

I’m not a big fan of Tsukano’s designs, they look “too cute” in my eyes, but that didn’t stop me from liking Neptune or Date A Life.
And now they you guys here and Kochiwa-san made me even more curious about the seemingly upcoming PS4 project. xDDD

Budgiecat

I think it’s a mistake to use him again. Keeping him to one series would have kept that series feeling ‘unique’. Now it feels generic and cloned. Especially since they already had Amano for this project. Waste of his talents….

http://lukalovesgames.blogspot.de/ Alkaid

Well then according to you, the same goes for Nomura (FF, KH, Parasite Eve, 3rd B-day, Ehrgeiz, ) Amano-san, Shinkawa, Yoshinari, VOFAN, especially “Huke” (BRS, SteinsGate ect.) and all the other artists.

Don’t see anyone having a problem with those above. Tsunako has his own design and the only question here is wether people can accept it or not. If you do not, that is more than fine. Artwork is a form of experession, if someone thinks the artist’s work and style is absolutely right for the project then… that’s their choice.

Plus dear Neko-san, keeping your work “unique” doesn’t earn you your living expenses. While I can understand that the design is not to you liking (I love more badass-looking stuff as well), it’s a whole other story to seemingly judge the game completely by it’s character design. So let’s wait and see first. :)

Budgiecat

Except Parasite Eve looks nothing like Erhgeiz which looks nothing like Kingdom Hearts. This game looks like Hyperdimension characters in Gothic lolita cosplay.

The company never advertised or teased “Tsunako” for this game They used AMANO’s name so people expected AMANO artwork. That’s why this is a disappointment imo.

http://lukalovesgames.blogspot.de/ Alkaid

true, but nowadays Nomura isn’t even able to produce his old style anymore so Parasite Eve 3 aka 3rd Birthday looks like KH, wich looks like Final Fantasy XIII – Versus XIII … which also looks like Dissidia and ofcourse TWEWY as well. Sadly “now” and “then” are two completely different timeframes.

That might be true as well, but they also never said that Amano would work on every single thing. But once more your disappointment and argumentation is somewhat understandable. As said before, I also would’ve liked a more mature look.

Budgiecat

The look of 3rd Birthday is more of a directorial choice than the hired artist choice.. 3rd Birthday wasn’t a Nomura game. It was a Toriyama game and Toriyama made FF XIII.

D H

Horribly glad there aren’t using Amano artwork. I don’t care if it’s not the popular opinion, his art is fine for random stuff and great for monsters, but his characters and such are, in my opinion, horrible and undefined. It’s the same opinion I have of Kazuma Kaneko, who to date has only designed three or four human characters that I like, but tons of monsters that are nice. Everything else just looks too abstract or monster-y, which is fine for some people, but horribly turns me off. The Amano art for all the FF games makes me glad they never really used his character “designs” or lack thereof, and those being the main focus of that big ol’ Anniversary set makes me quite okay with not being able to afford or even want it…

Budgiecat

Was talking about pre FF Amano…..from the Tatsunoko days (70’s). He uses an entirely different art style than the usual ‘beady eyed long pale ghost face’ FF cover art, mostly influenced by 60’s Western comic artists but with an Anime flair.

Tetsu

I’m glad to see Tiara wielding a blade-staff, it’s one of my favorite weapons :)

http://www.psvitadirect.com/ Kurisu Makise

Uh…concept art by Amano yet…none was seen, hmm well, other than that disappointment, the art that was seen looks quite pretty. Though the plot details seem very weak, to be frank. Also good to see that PS4 and PS Vita development are actually being taken seriously and separate.

LordKaiser

LOL I laugh at those that though this would be a serious RPG. It’s like expecting a serious RPG from NIS. Oh this surely looks serious and dark.